Tour of Britain 2016 Stage 8

Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) sprinted to victory in the final stage of the 2016 Tour of Britain in London today, while Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) finished safely in the peloton to secure the overall victory.

Cummings carried a 26 second advantage over Rohan Dennis (BMC) into the final stage, but that looked unlikely to be challenged with only 25 seconds worth of time bonuses available at the intermediate sprints along a mainly flat 100 kilometer route around central London.

Race Highlights

The 16 laps of the circuit were animated by the early breakaway group containing Jasper Bovenhuis (AnPost Chain Reaction), Taylor Phinney (BMC), Tom Stewart (Madison Genesis) and Gabriel Cullaigh (GB).

From there, the quartet went on to establish a minor advantage of around 45 seconds over the peloton.

The group allowed Bovenhuis to collect the remaining intermediate points he needed to secure the title in the sprint classification.

Despite a couple of last ditched attacks from Phinney and Steward, the breakaway group was brought to a close during the last 12 kilometers.

Once the peloton was back together, Lotto-Soudal looked to be lining up their man André Greipel to contest the sprint, but his teammate Jens Debusschere was allowed to attack off the front during the closing kilometer.

At one point, it looked as though Debusschere might be able to hold out, until Danny van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo) made a huge effort to bridge his way across, as did the rest of the peloton eventually.

Shortly thereafter, Ewan launched his attack along the right hand side of the road away from the main bunch, and got well ahead of the likes of Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) before they could respond.

From there, the young Australian easily made his way across the line to seize the stage victory.

Meanwhile, Cummings finished just behind the lead group, to secure the overall race title, marking only the second British rider to win the race since Bradley Wiggins in 2013.